In Pictures: London 2012 Olympic preparations

Since London won the 2012 Olympics bid in 2005, the city has been heavily investing in preparations for the games. As the big date draws close, Laura Mtaini takes a closer look at the £9.3 billion investment.

Located in Olympic Park, The Olympic Stadium is designed to be the centerpiece of the 2012 summer Olympics. The stadium was built from scratch and is one of the most important infrastructures of the event.

The construction cost of the stadium was of £468 million (Dh2.663 billion)

The capacity of the stadium is 80,000.There are more than 700 rooms within the stadium, including changing rooms and prayer rooms. The turf for the field of play was grown in Scunthorpe and was laid over a period of three days.

London’s public transport was a point of contention; some have claimed London to have one of the weakest public transport in Europe. Transport for London (TfL) carried out numerous improvements in preparation for 2012 such as:

- A £100 million pound (Dh569.12 million) investment poured into the improvement of the Stratford Regional Station (main arrival point).

- £25 million pounds (Dh142.28 million) cable cars across the river in order to link the 2012 Olympic venues: “The Thames Gateway Cable Car”.

- £77 million pound (Dh438.22 million) relief road connecting Weymouth to Dorchester was built in 2011 and some £16 million(Dh91 million) were put aside for the rest of the improvements.

Well over 10,000 officers and 13,500 members of the armed forces will lead the security operation. In addition, Naval and air assets including ships situated in the Thames, Eurofighter jets and surface-to-air missiles will be deployed as part of the security operation. The cost of security has increased to £553 million pounds (Dh3.147 billion)